He rolled his eye at that, his own chopsticks already snapped and poised in his hand as he leant on the table, chin resting in his palm.

"You're training a young hopeful for the very job you're afraid of becoming alienated from..." He shook his head incredulously. "But if you're that afraid of these two lives mixing and becoming murky, why don't you separate them?"

Kakashi spoke as if his solution were the simplest, most obvious approach, and that Tenzou was dense for not thinking of it sooner. He flipped the chunks of meat he'd arranged in a little line on the grill before reaching for the sake and serving them two hearty tumblers full.

He raised his with a mirthful glint in his eye. "So? What should I call you?"